PHILOPHOBIA
by otacool808
Summary: She was a daughter of Aphrodite. But there was just one problem– she was afraid of love. And then he came along, Mr. Sunshine himself. But would he be able to melt her cold heart, or would her fear control her forever? (OC x OC)


**HI EVERYONE! SO THIS IS AN OCxOC PJ FANFIC... UM YEAH. ANYWAYS THIS IS CHAPTER ONE, AND IT'S FROM LUCI'S PERSPECTIVE. I HOPE YOU ENJOY!**

**•••**

**1 / LUCI**

_"Papa…?"_

_"Yes, Luci?"_

_"...How come you don't play with me anymore?"_

_"Well Luci… That's because I don't love you anymore."_

Morning. My cheek was wet; I had cried in my sleep again. I forced myself to open my eyes and lay there for a minute, looking up at the ceiling of the cabin. As usual, I could hear the sounds of the other girls fighting over the bathroom, their loud and irritating voices cutting through the air. I sighed, getting up and changed right in front of my bed. I didn't need the bathroom– after all, we were all brothers and sisters here, and I wore a sports bra anyways.

I finished changing into my orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, denim cutoff shorts and pulled on my chocolate brown converse before tying my hair up into a tight ponytail and heading outside. Luckily, we didn't have any activity planned for this morning, so I could have some time to myself. I didn't like doing activities with the rest of my cabin, they were so shallow…

Then again, that's understandable, since our mom is the goddess of love.

Ahem… I guess I should explain that a bit more.

My name is Luci Reed. I'm 17 years old and I'm a year-round camper at Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for people like me. And by "people like me", I mean demigods, of course. My mom is Aphrodite, the goddess of love and… all that wonderful mushy stuff.

Anyways back to the story…

I got outside into the warm summer air and stretched a little, my joints stiff because I usually slept in a fetal position. I found myself blinking because the sun was shining right into my eyes and it burned.

"Yeah, she actually said that." I heard from behind me, "Can you believe her?!"

Oh gods. Not again. I quickly made my way as far away from the Aphrodite cabin and their annoying gossip. I honestly saw no point in talking about other people. How ridiculous.

"Hey Luci! Where you going?" One of them called after me. I glanced back quickly before suddenly slamming into something solid with a small surprised squeak.

"Hey, watch where you're going–" I heard a voice and stepped back, realizing that the solid thing I had ran into was actually one of the other campers.

"S-sorry…" I said quietly.

"Ah, no… That's okay…You aren't hurt, right?" The guy standing in front of me was probably around 6 feet tall, with lean muscles that could be seen through his bright camp shirt. He had deep blue eyes, not quite the color of the ocean, but more like a steely gray-blue. His dirty blonde hair was long and unkempt, so that it hung loosely in front of his eyes. Most stunning of all, he had this dazzling white smile and an almost golden aura around him that was almost as bright as the sun in my eyes a few minutes ago…

STOP! Ugh… I am not a romantic. There's no way I was attracted to this guy, I thought. Just a trick of the light. Really.

"I'm fine." I said simply after a brief pause and turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm gently, sending a strange, warm feeling all throughout me.

"Wait– um… My name's Blake, what's yours?"

I slowly turned and looked up into his eyes, "It's Luci. Let go please."

"Oh, right." He said letting go of my arm awkwardly, "Sorry."

"It's fine…" I said leaving, but I could feel his eyes watching me the whole time, and it made me nervous.

Since when had I felt nervous around anyone? I never felt anything. Of course all eyes were on me, I was a daughter of Aphrodite. Why were his eyes different from any others? I shook my head and ignored my own ridiculous thoughts as I made my way to the mess hall for breakfast. Usually we ate at 8 in the morning, but today was Saturday, so we ate at 10. I was pretty early, but it didn't matter to me. I valued my time alone at the table, before it became crowded with giggling idiots. Sometimes I wished I was a child of the Big Three, just so I could sit all alone…

On the way there, I passed several of the campers. It was easy to pick out where they belonged. A few Ares kids were listening to metal and armwrestling, the Apollo kids were singing together as one of them played guitar, and a Hermes kid had snuck into their midst to pickpocket one of them. It seemed like everyone belonged with their cabin except for me. From day one, I'd been claimed, but not once had I ever felt at home with my Aphrodite siblings. I often wondered if I'd been claimed by mistake. Maybe I was actually a gloomy daughter of Hades, or a vengeful daughter of Nemesis, maybe even a clever Athena girl. Or maybe I wasn't even a demigod at all, just some random girl who was able to see through the Mist. But no, I'd ended up with the group of popular kids who cared only about makeup and ego, and most annoyingly, love. They were just the kinds of kids I'd hated all my life.

You know how they say, "Better to have loved and lost than to not loved at all"? My philosophy is pretty much the opposite of that.

I finally arrived at the mess hall and sat down at the Aphrodite table, glad I had a few minutes of solitude before everyone else arrived. It was mostly quiet, except the distant sounds of campers shouting and laughing throughout the camp. A few minutes later, those excited whoops and laughs got louder and louder until they were all around me as campers filed into the mess hall for breakfast.

One of my half-sisters waved to me with that signature Aphrodite smile. I did my best to smile back as she sat next to me, waiting for the rest of our cabin to arrive.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked evenly.

"Oh, they're on their way– they're a little late 'cause a couple of them had to finish their hair." She chipped. "They'll be here soon– oh, there they are!"

No sooner than she had said that, the table was quickly filled as everyone scrambled for a good seat. The mess hall which had been quiet only moments ago was now filled with sound as we waited for food. Then everything fell silent as the camp counselor, Chiron, pounded his hoof against the ground three times.

The camp director, a short little man in a tiger-stripe Hawaiian shirt (who actually happened to be an all powerful god) stood up and cleared his throat, "Before we eat, I would like to announce that we have a new camper, Blaire Ekans."

Chiron leaned over and whispered something in Dionysus' ear.

"Er… Blake Evans." He corrected with an annoyed expression, "Hurrah, hurrah– welcome and all that. Everyone, just eat already."

"To the gods!" Chiron said, lifting a glass, and everyone did the same.

With that, wood nymphs started bringing out platters of food to each table and glasses were filled with whatever drink we desired (non-alcoholic, of course). I watched as my own glass was filled with clear bubbly sprite. Usually, people asked me why I didn't wish for something better, but sprite was my favorite because my dad had always given me sprite and saltines when I got sick as a kid… Back before he started ignoring me.

"Luci." Someone's voice jolted me out of my depressing thoughts and I turned to look at them. The girl who'd talked was Kaya, a girl who'd just been claimed last month. She'd been trying, almost desperately, to make me her friend, "Since today's a free day, what are you planning on doing?" She asked.

I thought about that for a minute, then shrugged. "I dunno."

She scratched her head awkwardly, as if trying to think of something to say. Before she could, I got up to scrape some of my plate into the fire, along with the others.

"To Aphrodite." I muttered as some of my food hit the fire and turned to smoke instantly. Then I walked back to the table and began to eat.

Throughout all of breakfast I just sat there quietly as the other campers chatted away happily. At the Aphrodite table, I usually didn't have much to talk about, since they always gossipped and chatted about makeup and hair. I honestly had no interest in any of those things. I personally had the power to change my appearance if I wanted to, but I'd never considered appearance important anyways.

Breakfast finally ended and the other campers started clearing their plates. I too got up and cleared my plate before considering where to go next. I was just deciding I'd go sparring when I heard a hesitant voice behind me.

"U-um, Luci?" It was Kaya again, "I was wondering if you wanted to go do something with me? I-I wanted to hang out with you a little…"

I stared at her a little at a loss for words. Now, I always had this habit of coming across bluntly. I swear to gods, I never meant it, but…

In the end, I said, "Why would I want to hang out with you?"

Kaya gave a small frightened squeak as she looked up at me with these sad little-kid eyes, "N-never mind… I'm sorry!" She said running away as I stood there like an idiot.

Like I said, it's not like I can help it. I grew up my whole life without any friends or real family, so I had no idea how to relate to normal people. I sighed, I'd probably really hurt her feelings just now. Then I heard a whistle behind me– not like the flirting kind, but the long surprised kind.

"Well, that was harsh." I heard a guy's voice and turned to see it was that guy Blake again. He wore this look on his face that was half-teasing, half-scolding… Like a cross between a witty guy and a mother.

"Oh." I said evenly, "It's you."

"You don't like her?" He continued.

"Th-that's not it!" I said a bit too quickly, then glanced away awkwardly, "I didn't mean to…"

Blake raised an eyebrow, "Tell you what, I'm going sparring– wanna come with?"

"No way." I replied without hesitation.

"Come on, please?" He asked.

"No." I repeated, "I don't even know you, for gods sakes."

"Then get to know me." He said simply. I looked over at him and caught glimpse of that bright, dazzling smile again, only it was more like a kid's smile. I really couldn't say no, could I…?

"Alright fine."

**•••**

**SO, DID YOU LIKE IT? I KNOW IT'S REALLY SLOW SO FAR, BUT DON'T WORRY, IT'LL PICK UP WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE CHAPTERS. I HAVE A QUEST PLANNED AND EVERYTHING. **

**PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT, I'D REALLY LOVE TO HEAR BACK FROM YOU. IT MIGHT BE AWHILE UNTIL I UPDATE JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, SINCE I'M WORKING ON A FEW OTHER STORIES ATM. **

**OH AND BTW: WOULD YOU PREFER I WRITE ONLY FROM LUCI'S PERSPECTIVE, OR SOME FROM BLAKE'S PERSPECTIVE AS WELL? AND WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO DO AN EXTRA CHAPTER WITH THEIR BACKSTORIES/PROFILES? PLEASE LET ME KNOW, THANKS!**


End file.
